


Tales

by caomoyl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 06:59:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6505855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caomoyl/pseuds/caomoyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Have I ever told you the one about the dragon?”<br/>“You have a story about a scary dragon?”<br/>“I have a story about everything!”</p><p><img/><br/>Banner by me!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tales

“Where’s my favourite Neville?”

The little kid ran into the hallway at the sound of the voice. He loved it when his auntie came over. She always told him the most amazing stories about magical creatures and about what she had done. Neville didn’t know whether it was all true, but he didn’t care; he just liked listening. 

His gran hated them though. ‘You’ll fill his head with nonsense’ she always said. But his auntie just ignored her and carried on; that’s why he loved her so much.

“Auntie Enid!” shouted Neville, running into her arms. “What story are you going to tell me today?”

“Hmm,” she replied thoughtfully, “have I ever told you the one about the dragon?”

“Dragon?” Neville looked shocked at the thought. “You have a story about a scary dragon?”

“I have a story about everything!” she said, tapping Neville on the nose fondly whilst carrying him into the living room. She popped him down on the sofa next to her.

“Now, do you have any dragon toys for this story? You could act it out!” Enid asked, looking up to Neville’s gran, Augusta as she did so. 

“Don’t be silly! Of course he doesn’t. We don’t want him playing with violent things like that!” Augusta spat, “It was bad enough after you told him about the blast-ended skrewt! I still haven’t managed to get the floor clean. So don’t you go putting ideas into his head!” She left the room quickly to go put a pot of tea on.

Enid turned back to Neville and whispered, “I’ll get you a dragon for your birthday.”

Neville’s face lit up.

“A real one?” He jumped up with a look of joy in his eye. “Can I play with it and take it for walks and-“

Enid cut him off.

“No, Neville, not a real one. I’ll get you a toy one.” Neville’s face dropped so she quickly added, “But you can still play with it.” She looked at the kitchen door, checking to see if Augusta was coming back. “Just don’t play with it in front of you gran or she might turn into a dragon too.”

Neville’s eyes sprang open with fear. His gran was scary enough at the best of times. He didn’t want her to turn into a dragon. She could eat him or bite his head off, something Uncle Algie said she would do to him if he gave Neville another fizzing whizzbee. He’d had a bad reaction and had to be taken to St. Mungos so they could get him back on the ground. 

“Shall we get on with this story then?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes.” Neville was back to jumping around with joy.

“Once there was a boy called Neville,” Enid started, using her mysterious story voice that Neville loved so much.

“Neville? Just like me?” His eyes glistened at the thought. 

“Yes. He was exactly like you. He lived with his gran who was scarier than a dragon. One day, he decided that he didn’t want to stay and that he was going to go off to Hogwarts and learn all about dragons and how to defeat them so that he could tame his gran and make her his pet.”

Neville giggled, laying down on a cushion. 

“But instead of getting his Hogwarts letter,” Enid continued, “he got a letter telling him he was too good for Hogwarts and that he could go to tame dragons in a far away land. He would be travelling through lots of mysterious places, finding all different kinds of dragons.”

“What kinds of dragons? I want a Chinese Firebomb. They can blow big balls of fire, Uncle Algie said. Or I want a Ukrainian Ironbelly because they could lay on you and squish you. ”

“Fireball, not bomb. And they can! But you have to be careful you don’t get burnt or squished. ”

“That would be ouchy.”

“Yes, now back to the story. Neville was scared when he got this letter. He didn’t think he was smart enough to tame dragons. But it was okay, the letter also said he wasn’t going to be finding the big scary ones, he was going to find the little nice ones like the Common Welsh Green and the Swedish Short-Snout.”

“When does Neville get to find the scary ones?” the five year old asked.

“When he’s bigger and stronger and can fight them.”

“I’ll just get them when they’re sleeping. They won’t see me coming.”

“What if dragons don’t sleep?”

Neville looked thoughtful for a second. “Well, then I’ll make them sleep like Gran does when I am ill or having scary nightmares.”

“With a sleeping draught? They don’t work on dragons. Dragons are too tough for that!”

“But I’m stronger than a dragon. They are just little.”

“But you’re even more little. Dragons are bigger than you think.”

“I could still win.”

“Don’t be silly Neville,” came a voice from the kitchen door. Augusta walked back into the room with a tray full of mugs full to the brim with tea. “You couldn’t take on a dragon.” She turned to Enid, “Stop putting silly ideas in his head.”

Enid ignored her and turned back to Neville. “Let’s carry on.”

Neville turned his attention back to Enid as she set her tea down on the table next to her.

“Right, where were we? Oh yes. So Neville goes to the far away places and tries to find the dragons. But Neville wasn’t ready to actually find one. One day, while he was camping out in a forest, he heard a big dragon nearby. He drew his wand, but suddenly forgot everything he learned about dragons. There was only one explanation for this; it was the rare and scary Forgetfulness Dragon.”

“Did the dragon make him forget?”

“Yes. Everything he had learnt about them went flying out of his ears. He didn’t know what to do. All he had was his wand in his hand. He shot the first spell he could think at it; a sleeping spell.”

“But dragons don’t sleep,” said Neville, thinking back to what his auntie had said only minutes before.

“Correct, but he’s forgotten that. The spell just made the dragon mad, so he quickly made a rock into a wall to hide himself.”

“He is clever enough to make a rock into a wall?”

Augusta rolled her eyes. “Any idiot can use a transfiguration spell, Neville. You’ll learn when you go to Hogwarts.”

“Yes,” said Enid, throwing Augusta a dirty look, “he was clever enough. He fought the dragon for hours, sometimes getting hurt. Even once the dragon sent him flying miles into the air before he fell back down and landed in a bird nest. That made the bird very unhappy.”

“Poor bird! He might have broken its eggs or landed on its foot.” Neville looked sad at the thought.

“I know, but it’s okay, the bird was fine.”

Neville seemed to consider this for a second before accepting it and allowing his auntie to continue with the story. 

“This is where the story gets strange because no one knows why the dragon flew away.”

“Why would it do that? I thought they were fighting!”

“Maybe the dragon didn’t want to fight anymore. So he flew away so he didn’t hurt Neville anymore. But do you know what happened next? Neville looked down and he was okay again. He had no cuts or bruises He had some dragon’s blood on him that healed him.”

“Dragon blood can do that?”

“It can do a lot of things! It can make you grow taller, give you super hero powers and even make your food taste nicer!”

“Like sauce? Ew! I wouldn’t put that on my food.”

“I know. Only silly people do that.”

“Ooh, can it make you remember everything so that you can be really clever?”

“Yes. You’ll become the smartest person in the whole world. But you have to drink it, which is why no one ever does. It tastes yucky.”

Neville giggled. “Maybe if you ate it with something yummy it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“I thought you didn’t want it with your food!”

“But I didn’t know it would make you smarter!”

Enid shook her head and Augusta sighed.

“Don’t listen to her Neville. She’s making it all up.” Augusta rolled her eyes at Enid and left the room again.

Neville looked down, his eyes filling with tears. Enid got up and sat down next to him.

“What’s wrong, little man?”

“I want to tame dragons,” he sniffed, wiping his nose on his sleeve. 

“And you will. You just have to wait a bit. Ignore what your gran says. She’s just jealous because she never got to do it.”

“Really?”

“Really. You just wait. One day you will be the best. You’ll show everyone what you’re made of. I just know you will.”

Neville’s face burst out into a big smile and he hugged his auntie tight.


End file.
